They may not be the most exotic biscuits in the world but there’s nothing quite like the semi-sweet, slightly salty whole wheat flavour of a good ol’ digestive. Learn how to make your own and avoid the nasty additives often found in the shop-bought variety.

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl and mix to combine the ingredients.

Quickly, working with your fingertips or a blender, rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the milk and work through to form a dough.

Turn out on a floured surface and roll to form a smooth dough.

Using a well-floured rolling pin, roll the dough out to a bit more than 1/8 inch thick and cut into rounds, about 2 1/2 inches in diameter. You can keep rolling the scraps together to make additional dough.

Transfer the biscuits to your baking pan and, if desired, prick the biscuits with a fork to create holes. Bake for 20 minutes until biscuits are pale gold.

Hi Donal!
I discovered you channel very recently and I love your recipes!
I want to try and make digestive biscuits this week for my parents but I need to make them sugar-free and cholesterol-free.
Do you think I can use oil (or vegetable margarine) instead of butter and an other sweetener (like Stevia for exemple) instead of sugar?
Cheers from Paris

I’ve only tested the biscuits this way so I’m not 100% how they would turn out but you can defo give them a go!

Kamal Bouhali

I did try and they turned out very nice. Crunchy and crumbley ^^! I don’t really like the taste of stevia, but it’s ok.
I didn’t have the traditional ‘digestive’ finish but a “biscuit presque parfait”.
Thanks for the great recipe